FBI agents arrested a New York City police officer this morning and charged him with civil rights violations for using his pepper spray on a man involved in a dispute at a bar owned by the officer’s cousin, officials said.
Admir Kacamakovic, a seven-year department veteran, was on duty and wearing his official NYPD uniform when he assaulted the bar patron, then handcuffed and illegally detained the man, who had been involved in a dispute over a parking spot in front of the cousin’s bar, officials said.
Brooklyn federal prosecutors say that Kacamakovic told the man that “no one f–ks with my cousin’s place.”
A second person was assaulted with pepper spray during the incident, officials said.
The feds also say that Kacamakovic, 31, used his official position to make unauthorized queries of the FBI’s national computer database in order to furnish the information to his cousin, who at the time was the focus of a federal probe into narcotics trafficking and other crimes, officials said.
Kacamakovic ran through the FBI’s computer system a name used on a Virginia driver’s license that undercover federal agents had furnished to the officer’s cousin, officials said.
The license was intended for associates of the cousin to be used forcriminal purposes, officials say.
Eventually, the officer’s cousin was charged with narcotics trafficking by the feds.
Prosecutors also say that Kacamakovic, who is assigned to the NYPD’s 62nd Precinct in Brooklyn, used the FBI’s database to find information about the man involved in the parking dispute, after the man filed a complaint against the officer with the NYPD’s Civilian Complaint Review Board and then a civil suit in state court.
“This officer repeatedly used his position to intimidate others, including beat-downs and violence, as well as accessing sensitive information that could have jeopardized undercover investigations, all for personal gain,” said Janice K. Fedarcyk, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI’s New York City office.
Kacamakovic is scheduled to be arraigned this afternoon in Brooklyn federal court.
The officer has been charged with two felony counts and two misdemeanor counts, and if convicted, faces a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison, officials said.
Kacamakovic was suspended without pay.
“This prosecution demonstrates that the arbitrary and unjustified use of force and the abuse of trust by police officers who are sworn to uphold the law will not be tolerated, ” said Loretta Lynch, the United States Attorney for New York’s Eastern District.
mmaddux@nypost.com